Frosty white creamsicles made with cauliflower and streaked with rainbows of healthy fruits and vegetables. Easy to make, full of hidden veggies, and refreshing for all ages.
Rainbow Cauliflower Creamsicles
These homemade cauliflower creamsicles are a frosty snow summer snow storm on a stick. Made colorful with ripples of fresh fruit and veggie purees. What a delicious cool treat for anyone yearning for a tropical vacation with added veggies.
What Does A Creamsicle Taste Like?
Kind of like a tropical pudding on a stick. The base itself tastes creamy and bright with citrus flavor, just like the creamsicles sold commercially of ice cream trucks.
But you won’t find cauliflower in those versions. Or berries or veggies for that matter. Those orange creamy wonders are filled with ingredients you don’t want to be eating, but they sure taste frosty and fun.
So I thought, let’s copy that idea only make them healthy.
Is Cauliflower Healthy?
It sure is! Cauliflower is rich in vitamin C and folate, an essential mineral hard to come by in the Western diet. Cauliflower is low in sodium, free of cholesterol, and free of fat. No wonder we want it in a dessert!
Ingredients in My Homemade Creamsicles
The first ingredient I wanted to add is a vegetable. For that, I turned to my tried and true favorite frozen veggie brand, Stahlbush Island Farms, a quality fruits and veggies farm in Oregon. They produce a dreamy amount of veggies, but for a creamsicle, I needed a creamy white veggie.
Enter Cauliflower. Quality. Steamed.
I also added full fat coconut milk to add a liquid creaminess and all the nutrients of coconut. And for the citrus flavor, I used lime juice. I didn’t use orange juice, as in the original creamsicle, because I didn’t want an orange tinge to color the snowy white. And I used lime juice instead of lemon juice because lime juice is sweeter.
For the rainbow purees, I used a mix of veggies and fruits. Here is my fruit and veggie puree chart:
- PURPLE – blueberry puree
- RED – strawberry puree
- ORANGE – mango puree
- YELLOW – pineapple puree
Before we dive into the recipe, I’d like to invite you to sign up for my free chocolate course. Five lessons hit your inbox with detail on how to create your own simple healthy chocolate desserts.
Okay, so let’s get started…
How is a Creamsicle Made?
Easy! Just blend up the popsicle base mixture into a snowy white cream, and pour into a popsicle mold, filling each well half way.
Then in four little bowls, stir up the four purees, and pour each into the popsicle wells, then fill the well with remaining white base.
There is a bit of math involved.
If you use a traditional popsicle mold, each well holds 1/3 cup. So you’ll need a total of 3 1/3 cup mixture to fill a 10-popsicle mold. Of that, 2 2/3 cup is the white popsicle base, both used as the white layers in the popsicles and to make the fruit purees.
Still with me? Stay strong and you’ll have a popsicle at the end.
Tips to Make Creamsicles
Over-steam the cauliflower: It’s important to be sure the base is creamy so over-steam the cauliflower. I microwaved mine in a bag for 7 minutes. And poke it with a fork. The veggie needs to be extremely soft. Microwave more if the fork meets resistance.
Leave fruit puree chunks: You can use a fork to press the fruit into a puree. I have a mini blender jar so I was able to blend it creamy, but chunky is fine too.
How to work with canned coconut milk: Have you ever worked with canned full fat milk? It’s MAGIC. You find it at grocery stores, sometimes in baking, sometimes in the cultural food aisle, or just online. It’s a great ingredient because it can replace heavy dairy cream as a creamy liquid ingredient. Coconut milk from the can is basically grated coconut milk, so it contains the valued lauric acid noted for its positive effects on good cholesterol.
To use it in this recipe, use the can at room temperature. Shake it up and open the can. If the fat has separated from the liquid, pour both solids and liquids in a pan and heat until creamy but allow it to cool before blending for popsicle base.
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Rainbow Cauliflower Creamsicles
Ingredients
White Citrus Base Popsicle (good for 10 popsicles)
- 1 cup steamed cauliflower
- 1 cup full-fat coconut milk
- 2/3 cup lime juice
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Purple Blueberry puree (good for 2 popsicles)
- 2 tbsp base
- 2 tbsp crushed blueberries
Red Strawberry puree (good for 2 popsicles)
- 2 tbsp base
- 2 tbsp strawberries thawed or fresh
Orange Mango puree (good for 2 popsicles)
- 2 tbsp base
- 2 tbsp mango thawed or fresh
Yellow Pineapple puree (good for 2 popsicles)
- 2 tbsp base
- 2 tbsp pineapple thawed or fresh
Instructions
Prep
- Open the room temperature coconut milk cans. If the fat has separated from the liquid, pour in a sauce pan, heat and stir to create a creamy texture. Let the mixture cool while you prepare the fruits.
- Measure out the fruits, set in little bowls and squish with a fork.
Make the White Popsicle Base
- Put all ingredients in a blender, and process until creamy. You can taste and if it needs to be sweeter, add a tablespoon of maple syrup if you'd like.
Make the Rainbow Fruit Purees
- Add 2 tablespoons of the white popsicle base to each fruit/veggie bowl. Stir with a fork until the mixture is fairly combined. You can add a teaspoon more of the white popsicle base any mixture seems too dry.
Make the Popsicles
- Pour the mixture into each popsicle well, filling only 1/3 of the way.
- Spoon 2 tablespoons of each color into two wells.
- Fill each well to the top with the white popsicle base.
- If the rainbow puree appears to be a solid wall between the two white layers, take a fork and push it into the rainbow and tug up and down. You want the rainbow to reach into the white base layers above and below.
- Freeze the popsicle mold for at least 6 hours. The longer, the easier the popsicle will stay solid when you remove them from the mold.
Remove Popsicles from Mold
- Line a cookie tray with parchment paper and set it in the freezer.
- Dip the mold base into hot water either tipping under a faucet or dipping into a large bowl. It's a process. You'll have to dip and tug several times.
- As soon as you release each popsicle, lay it on the tray in the freezer.
Storage
- Store the popsicles for 2 months in a sealed container in the freezer.
Nutrition
Dee Dine is founder of Green Smoothie Gourmet, a plant based recipe blog, and author of the recent cookbook, Crazy Healthy with 4 Ingredients . On this blog you’ll find incredibly easy recipes with hidden veggies for anyone wanting to eat healthier, regardless of diet. Dee has graduate degrees in sciences and journalism. More about Dee Dine here.
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